The Cambridge History of India, Vol. III: Turks and Afghans v3.c28.16

v3.c28.16

‘Alā-ud-dīn died in 1458, having some time before designated as his heir his eldest son Humāyūn, who bore a reputation so evil that his father had been urged to reconsider his decision, which, however, had never been revoked. On the king’s death a party among the courtiers, headed by Saif Khān, Mallū Khān, and Shāh Habībullāh, the soldier son of Khalīlullah the Iconoclast, enthroned his younger son, Hasan Khān, and the populace assembled for the purpose of attacking Humāyūn in his house and putting him to death, but cowardice was not among the prince’s many faults, and he came forth with his personal guard of eighty horsemen, and cut his way through the crowd to the palace, where the royal troops joined him. He secured his brother’s person, caused Saif Khān to be tied to the leg of an elephant and dragged through the streets until he perished, and imprisoned Habībullāh, but Mallū Khān fled into the Carnatic.